


Back to the Start

by inheritanceofgeek



Series: Reconciliation [6]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: (sort of), (technically) - Freeform, Crystal is a good mum, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hanukkah, Light Angst, Meeting the Parents, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Pre-New 52
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 15:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17552045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inheritanceofgeek/pseuds/inheritanceofgeek
Summary: Tim and Stephanie are finally back to where they'd begun, no, scratch that,  they were finally being functional adults in a functional relationship. So why is Tim asking to meet her Mom feel like such a big deal all of a sudden?





	Back to the Start

**Author's Note:**

> I am having too much fun in this universe and at this point I do not see how I can be stopped....

The fairground date had gone well, very well! So well in fact, that the next week and been the Arcade Date, and then there’d been the Bowling Date, the Karaoke Date, the Princess Bride Quote Along Date, the Museum Date, the infamous Midnight Garden Tour Date (how was she mean to know Harley and Ivy were going to show up?!) and the classic Fancy French Restaurant Date which she didn’t know was going to be fancy and had worn skinny jeans and converses to. It had only been  _ slightly _ mortifying. 

She still wasn’t sure that the Wayne Family Hanukkah Dinner had counted as a date, since she probably would have been invited anyway, considering Cass was in town. It wasn’t as though it was the first time she’d met any of them, nor was it the first holiday they’d spent together. Heck, they’d all ended up spending thanksgiving together, recovering in the Bat Cave, covered in other people’s blood and nursing a broken rib or three. But there had definitely been a different atmosphere to this one… for one, Jason had shown up. So that was a start. Then there’d been Damian insisting on sitting between her and Tim, which was just plain weird since he usually wanted to be as far away from a Tim as possible. It wasn’t a secret that they were dating again, but that night had certainly indicated a certain switch in their relationship. 

He’d driven her home in one of Bruce’s fancy vintage sports cars that she was usually under strict instructions to never ever touch without direct permission from Bruce himself. He’d drawn the line at letting her drive it though, but she was content for Tim to have her in the passenger seat. Which was at least a step up from last time when she’d been relegated to the back seat for eating Cheetos before getting in. It was freezing outside, a stubborn frost coating the ground that refused to turn into snow, so they’d been sadly unable to roll the roof down (or rather Tim had refused to let her roll the roof down and she’d decided not to argue what with the whole ‘missing a spleen’ thing). They’d chosen to take the long way home, taking a tour of Gotham’s suburbs and enjoying just having a chance to talk with no one else present to listen in, not even a passing stranger. They still reached her house far too quickly for her own liking, although it did mean she could make out with him a little sooner. The gear stick got in the way a bit, but it didn’t really matter because Tim Drake-Wayne was biting at her lip and swirling his tongue against the roof of her mouth as her hands pushed up past his button up shirt to feel along his bare back, and if anyone looked in on them, that’s all they’d see. Tim Drake-Wayne and Stephanie Brown making out like teenagers, not Spoiler and Robin, or Batgirl and Red Robin. Not even Stephanie and Alvin. Just them, for who they really were. 

Eventually they stopped, because they couldn’t stay in that car forever, no matter how much they hoped they could. Tim, ever the gentleman, opened the car door for her and walked her to their tree. 

“So,” he said, tugging her coat a little further shut with a tiny grin “I think my family might like you.” 

“I think they may like me too.” She mussed, gently wiping off a smudge of lipstick from Tim’s face with the corner of her sleeve “It’s almost like I’ve been working alongside them for years!”

“So,” he repeated in the same tone as before, his hands still on her coat, clearly reluctant to leave even now. 

“ _ So _ ,” she mimicked, grinning at him.

“When do  _ I _ get to meet your family?”

“What?” She frowned “You’ve already met my mom? Years ago! You took me to Lamaze Classes and bought be chicken soup, and she caught us making out in the living room that one time. She knows who you are!” 

“Yeah, but, does she know we’re dating again? I know she knows about your little secret, but does she know about mine?”

“What, that you cry during the Princess Bride? Because that’s not a secret Tim. I have photographic proof of your sappiness. Wait,” she frowned, pulling back from him for a moment “did you just tell her I could tell her about you’re, erm, night job?”

“Well, yes, of course? I don’t want you to have to lie to her about anything else. I’d feel bad for making you all go through that again. I’ve spoken to B, he’s not, well, he’s not overly happy about it, but he understands. You’re the only one of us with a mother whose still around, that’s not a relationship I want to see ruined just because of my secrets.”

“What happened to ‘let’s take things slowly’?” she said, almost defensively. She didn’t know why, after all they'd been through together, this still felt like such a huge step. It made sense, she’d been planning on telling her mother anyway, at some point, but about Red Robin too?  _ That _ she’d thought she’d have to lie about, and truth be told, the idea of lying to her Mom again, about something as big as this, hurt too much to contemplate. But she was equally worried about what she might think to her dating another vigilante! Sure, she was fine with her being Batgirl, but she knew all her mom wanted for her was still a normal life outside of it all. Tim was the complete opposite of that. He was practically a giant shining symbol in the sky of everything that had happened to her over the past five years, the good and the bad. And some nights she still wondered if the good really did outweighed the bad.... However, Tim was right, she  _ was _ the only one to still have a mother to care about her, and she couldn’t let anything as big as this mess that up.  

“Steph,” he said, pushing a loose strand of her behind her ear “you realise that we’ve been dating for about three months now? I think three months and/or five years is about the usual time frame for meeting someone’s Mom. Just, think about it, okay? I’d really like to finally get a chance to get to know how her  _ properly _ .” 

“Alright, you great softie, I’ll think about it.” She gave him a quick goodbye kiss, and smiled when he held onto her hand until she had finally walked far enough down the drive. She knew that if she looked back when opening the door, he’d still be stood there, watching her. The warmth of the house was inviting, but damn if she didn’t just want to go back out there and kiss him again for the hell of it. But alas, she had other concerns. 

“Soooo” sang her mother, standing in the doorway of the kitchen holding a mug of coffee, still in her nurses uniform, “how was your Hanukkah?” 

“Great, good food, beautiful candles, nice songs, spun some Dreidels. It was a fun night! Ten out of Ten, would Hanukkah again,” she gave a big fake yawn “tiring though, going to go to bed, night Mom!” 

“Short Dark And Handsome’s family a bit of a handful then?” she said, slyly drinking out of her mug. Steph sighed, 

“Mom, I told you, his name is Elwin! And he’s not that short. You’ve just only seen him from a distance.” she added, a little defensively.

“First, I may not have been  _ allowed _ to see him up close, but I’ve seen you two behind that tree. If he’s the same height as you, he’s not tall, and ‘Average Height Dark And Handsome’ doesn’t have the same ring to it.” 

“Mom! That’s just  _ mean _ !” she cried, unable to hide her laughter though. Tim beware, she would be telling Jason about this one. 

“And secondly, I know his real name isn’t Elwin, because I’m a nurse, and so know first hand that nobody calls their kid Elwin these days, and if they did, there’s no way someone  _ your _ age would insist on going by that name. They’d call the self, “Win” or “El” or maybe even just go by their last name, which would be…” 

“Mom,” sighed Stephanie again, smiling at her efforts “Okay, his name  _ isn’t _ Elwin. It’s Tim, alright? Tim.” 

“That’s a nice name.” she hummed swirling her coffee before pausing and looking back up at her “As in, your ex-boyfriend Tim? From when you were-- before-- well, just from before everything I guess.” 

“Yeah, Tim, just like before…” she trailed off, taking a slow step towards the stairs as she began to try to make her exit. 

“Well, I suppose we all must have a type, I just didn’t think yours would be names! Sorry Honey, that was a bit—” she looked up again, squinting “Stephanie, what aren’t you telling me now? Stephanie Amethyst Brown, don’t you dare run away from this conversation!” There wasn’t actually any anger in her voice, nothing like she’d heard before though. Not like when she’d found out she was still putting on the Spoiler suit, or when she’d caught her skipping class to go be Batgirl. 

Steph was faster than her though, and was already at her bedroom door by the time she got in motion. She flopped down on the bed, and tried to ignore her mother’s knocking. 

“Stephanie, open this door.” 

Stephanie kept quiet. 

“Stephanie, why are you being like this? Whatever this is, can we not just talk about it like adults?” 

Stephanie buried her head in her pillow and tried to blot out the sound. Her mom quietened for a moment, and then said, very softly, in that gentle tone of voice only ever used by mothers who truly cared “Please just, let me know what the problem is so we can sort it out together. Whatever it is, I’m not going to judge you, I promise.” 

Steph tried hard to ignore it, and then couldn’t resist it anymore and opened the door to her Mom before trudging back to her bed. Her Mom sat gingerly next to her, not talking for a minute, clearly wanting Stephanie to go first. She took a deep breath, before turning back round to her. If she was going to have this conversation, she was going to look her in the eye for it.

“His name is Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne,” she saw her Mom do an excellent job at not overly reacting to that last part “and yes, I did used to date him when I was Robin. But also, before that, when I was Spoiler and— and  _ he _ was Robin.” again, her Mom’s skills as a nurse were really coming through as she actively didn’t react to anything she was saying. She could see how hard it was for her as well, but they’d both been through a lot together, and neither really wanted to mess this up by saying the wrong word. “And, you remember that guy? Alvin Draper? Who used to take me to Lamaze classes? Yeah, that was Tim too, but he was Robin at the time, and he didn’t want anyone knowing his secret identity, even  _ me _ ! Which, I know is super messed up, but we’ve worked through all that stuff now, and he knows I lied about my death, and he knows that I’m Batgirl because  _ he’s _ Red Robin, but we’re not dating under any of those names this time, just our real ones and we’re just really super happy together in ways I didn’t expect I’d be allowed to be and please, Mom, please don’t make me break up with him! I think I’m in love with him.”

There it was, the truth. Not the first time she’d said it, and hopefully not for the last either. It felt weird though, saying it out loud. There was a big difference between falling in love when you’re fifteen and jumping across rooftops together, and when you’re an adult, and you’d worked through all the pain of the past to bring you to the present. Where, you’ve healed enough within yourself to  _ allow _ yourself to feel like you were fifteen again and falling in love for the first time. Tim was no longer the boy who’d broken her heart. She was no longer the girl who betrayed him. They were two completely separate people now, and she had never been happier in all her life. She was old enough, and wise enough, to know that she didn’t  _ need _ him in her life. She could cope fine without him, she could move on and still live a full, happy life, but what it came down to was that she  _ wanted _ him in her life. She’d always tried so hard to not  _ want _ things. It only ever lead to disappointment and anger. But now? Now she finally felt  _ allowed _ to want things, fuck that, she  _ deserved _ to want things! So yes, yes she was in love with Tim Drake-Wayne, and she was pretty damn fucking sure he loved her too, and it was  _ amazing _ . 

“Right, well,” her mom began slowly “I guess all I can really say is that, so long as you’re happy Stephanie, than I guess I’m happy too. You’ve grown up so much over the years, and I trust you to make better judgments than I did at your age. Does your gut say you’re doing the right thing?” Steph nodded, trying not to cry and failing. “Well then baby, you’re going to be doing just fine.” 

Steph launched herself into a hug, clinging tightly to her like she’d never want to let go. Her mother gently pulled her closer, resting her own head on top of Stephanie’s and rocking her slowly. 

“So,” she said at last, still not letting go “Can I meet Short Dark and Handsome now?”

Steph laughed “Only if she promise not to call him that anymore.” 

“Okay, okay, I promise. Not to his  _ face  _ at least.” She squeezed her, teasingly “Does Christmas sound good? Does he-- does he do Christmas? I know you went and did Hanukkah today but--“

“Yes Mom, he does do Christmas.” intoned Steph, before changing her tone to something brighter, “I’m sure he’d love to come, in fact. Thanks, I’ll tell him tomorrow to buy an ugly sweater specially.” 

“We don’t wear ugly sweaters for Christmas?” 

“Yeah but he doesn’t have to know that.” She grinned back up at her Mom, well. She couldn’t let him get away with any of this  _ too _ easily.    
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoyed this? Let me know via Kudos/Comments or on tumblr where I'm mrsmarymorstan =)


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